Monday miscellany

The IPKat, Merpel, Tufty and the AmeriKat wish all their readers a very happy new week!

Coming soon. This Tuesday, 24 November, is the annual "Copying Without Infringing" conference (programme here), with IPKat team member Jeremy in the chair. Late bookings are still welcome! In two Tuesdays time, on 8 December, Professor Toshiko Takenaka gives the PatLit seminar, "Patent Litigation in the US and Japan: What's the Difference?" This event is fun and it's free (details here).

From the IPKat's friend Jean-François Vanden Eynde (eBrand Services FBS S.A. - EuroDNS) comes news that Swedish online clothing and tech retailer Sandryds Handel has assumed ownership of The Pirate Bay’s logo and plans to use it for marketing USB sticks. The Pirate Bay founders had never registered the mark and always let it be reproduced. Peter Sunde, one of the four Pirate Bay co-founders, says they will challenge the Swedish Patent and Registration Office's decision to allow the mark's registration. Further details from Wired here.

Around the weblogs. For those who wonder whether a longer copyright term provides a greater or a lesser degree of incentive to creative productivity, the ever-provocative Howard Knopf (in Excess Copyright) takes a look at some economic research and theory. Meanwhile Fashion law weblog Fashionista-at-Law has some news: Fashionista has aquired a little sister Modeliste, who not only contributes comments but tweets.

"The Penny Drops" is the title of this year's Annual Convergence Survey, carried out by YouGov for London-based law firm Olswang LLP. The report based on the survey -- all 96 pages of it -- will be launched on Wednesday morning, 25 November. If you can't be there for the grand unveiling, the IPKat will try to make sure that all the juiciest bits of this treat are served up for your delectation on this weblog.